Mass Effect (2007)
Intense overall intensityWhat's in it
A romance the player pursues culminates in a love scene that implies sex, shown briefly with partial nudity before cutting away.
The player fights human and alien enemies with guns and biotic powers; hits produce blood and bodies remain, but there is no dismemberment or gore.
The love scene shows brief partial nudity — a bare side and back — of the two characters; no genitals are shown.
Bars and clubs serve alcohol on screen and Shepard can drink; a narcotic called red sand is referenced in dialogue.
The story deals with genocide, war and colonies destroyed, and a named squad member dies during the campaign depending on the player's choice.
Exotic asari dancers perform in a nightclub and a courtesan figure, the Consort, offers her companionship as part of a quest.
Human corpses are shown impaled on spikes and transformed into grotesque husk creatures as body horror the player did not cause.
Dialogue includes moderate profanity such as 'shit', 'ass' and 'bastard'.
Reanimated husk enemies and eerie derelict environments create unsettling moments, but nothing continuously hunts the player.
Criminal factions, smugglers and mercenaries operate in the world's underworld hubs, encountered as story content.
The player fights alien wildlife such as varren and thresher maws as ordinary combat.
Who can reach your kid
What it is
Mass Effect is a single-player science-fiction action role-playing game in which you play Commander Shepard, an elite soldier leading a squad across the galaxy to stop a rogue agent and an invading machine race. Play mixes third-person cover shooting, biotic (sci-fi telekinetic) powers, vehicle exploration, and extensive dialogue where your choices shape the story. Combat is realistic gunfire and powers against human, alien, and robotic foes with blood effects but no dismemberment. The story carries heavy subject matter — destroyed colonies, references to galactic extermination, and on-screen deaths of named characters, including a moment where the player must sacrifice one squadmate. Alcohol is served in clubs and a narcotic is referenced, dialogue includes moderate profanity, and an optional romance ends in a brief partially-nude intimate scene that fades before anything explicit. Grotesque 'husk' enemies made from humans impaled on spikes provide some body-horror imagery.
How it's framed
The game frames Shepard as a heroic leader making weighty decisions, and pairs a good/bad choice system that lets the player resolve situations with diplomacy or aggression. Violence is presented as duty in a galaxy under threat rather than glorified cruelty, and the darker events — sacrifice, loss, and extermination — are treated as costs of the conflict the story asks the player to weigh.
Details
- Developer
- BioWare
- Publisher
- Electronic Arts
- Released
- 19 Dec, 2008
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